1971 Chevy El Camino Custom Paint - Set It On Fire

Stripes And Flames Are Good On The Hood.

Rally stripes, racing stripes, hood stripes, SS stripes ... call 'em what you may, but a stripe by any other name is still a stripe. It may have all started back in the Byzantine era when the first charioteer decided to lay out some lovely lines on his radical new ride. There is no scientific explanation behind it, but laying down some SS stripes on a plain Jane hood actually seems to make the vehicle go faster. No matter how you look at it, hood stripes will almost always increase the visual appeal of a classic or modern Chevrolet.

The '71 El Camino on the cover of this magazine was painted a brilliant PPG red in the March 2007 issue by Harrison Restorations. The El Camino may have had too much red on it, so shop owner Harrison Ortis added some SS-style stripes to the hood to break everything up. However, he didn't stop there: Buried deep within the black stripes are some three-dimensional, realistic flames that run a quarter of the way up the hood.

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1971 Chevy El Camino Custom Paint - Set It On Fire

Once the hood was removed from the El Camino, it was sanded with 400-grit paper. The 400-grit paper will prep the clearcoat's surface and give the paint something to adhere to. Then the hood bottom and sides are completely masked off and protected from any overspray.

Yes, there are a number of companies like Ground Up, Year One, The Paddock, etc., that offer SS hood stencils and even vinyl decal SS stripes. Stencils would not be a bad way to go, but in this case we chose to lay our stripes out just a bit differently. From the hood centerline we measured 2 1/4 inches in either direction, making the stripes 5 1/2 inches apart. No, this is not the factory width; it's a custom job.

Take a close look at this photo. The way to get perfect pinstripes around the big hood stripes is to tape it off. Three strips of quarter-inch tape are laid side by side and the middle line is peeled up, exposing the red hood underneath. It is this exposed part that will be painted black, and it will be a consistent width all the way around.

Getting started: We laid a strip of quarter-inch tape down the hood's centerline. Establishing the centerline will be the basis for all our measurements. It helps that there's a peak down the middle of this cowl hood.

This quarterinch tape is perfect for our application. It won't leave behind sticky glue on the hood's surface, it is pliable, and it is the perfect width to create the hood's outer stripe.

Now that the stripes and pinstripes are completely laid out, masking the rest of the hood with painter's tape and paper can begin. It might help to eyeball the stripes a little longer or remeasure just in case any doubts exist.

Now that everything is laid out and masked off, all traces of dust, fingerprints, and any other possible contaminants are removed with Auto Prep and a tack cloth.

Armed with his Iwata spray gun, Harrison Ortis lays down the black PPG paint a few layers at a time.

Harrison envisioned realistic threedimensional - type flames buried deep in the hood. The following issue of Super Chevy will have a detailed account of the methods we used, what colors we used, and how to bury them in the black stripes.

Before we go any further, let's take a look at what supplies were used and how they helped us with this hood. The paint is PPG DBC basecoat black, the reducer is PPG DT 885, and the clearcoat is PPG 2010. We used 3M quarterinch fine-line tape to lay out the stripes, and 3M painter's tape to mask off the vehicle. Auto Prep from Klean Strip was used to wipe our substrate clean.

Now that the black has been sprayed, we took a break for a while to let the paint cure. We could just stop here and be satisfied with the job, but that's no fun.

Once Albert Venegas laid down one layer of flames, he sprays clearcoat mixed with House Of Kolor Candy paint. This makes the flame more vivid and at the same time helps blend it in with the surrounding black.

Once Albert was done with the several layers and colors of flame, it was sprayed with a clearcoat mixed with black. This mix helped to bury the flames into the black stripes, add more depth, and make them less visible as well. Almost like ghost flames, but not so ghostlike.

The only way to really see the flames is in direct sunlight, so we took this shot in bright sun to show how flames can look. Most of the time they stay hidden fairly well. In Part 2 of our story we will go hog wild on another hood with flames just to show you the methods. And yes, anyone can spray these with enough practice.

The tape is carefully peeled away, and ta-da! We have stripes and flames on the hood.

We are not done yet. Twenty-four hours later, after the clearcoat has cured, it was time to cut and buff out the final product. This is where the brilliant shine comes from.

Our 1966 Chevy El Camino gets some much need body work. The guys at Rubio's Autobody went to work fixing every panel and installing a new hood from Original Parts Group. Only at www.chevyhiperformance.com, the official site for Chevy High Performance Magazine » Read More